Andra-D054
|born= |died= |species= |gender=Female |height=175 cm, 5 ft 9 in |weight=79 kg, 174 lbs |hair=Dark Brown |eyes=Blue |cyber= - Spartan neural implant |allegiance= |branch= - |unit= *SPARTAN-III Delta Company *VIOLET-III - Team Boson *Task Force Phoenix |rank=Petty Officer Third Class |mos= |specialty=Marksmanship, Bomb disposal, |battles= |status='ON DEPLOYMENT' }} Andra-D054, also known as Andra Kearsarge by personal preference, is a Delta Company commando with a standing reputation as a temperamental subordinate with ongoing traumatic stress and fraternization concerns. She was the protege to late SPARTAN-III , Joshua-G024, and partner and significant other of fellow Spartan Merlin-D032. Originally assigned to Spartan Team Boson, she served as the unit's designated marksman and bomb technician; recent performance reviews have encouraged the Spartan Headhunter community to consider her recruitment. Born too late to participate in the , Andra graduated from initial Spartan training before becoming a . Stationed on in support of Internal Investigations Unit 419, she participated in several high-profile missions in North and South America. Following two team desertions and Team Boson's reorganization, Andra-D054 was attached to the assassination unit, VIOLET-III, during the border war with the Imperium of Clarity and subsequent ONI frontier investigations. During the , Andra was acquired by Task Force Phoenix following a squabble between superior officers and deployed on missions to neutralize key support structures, particularly the Iskander Syndicate. __TOC__ 'Career Service Vitae' 'Biography' 'Father's Daughter' Andra Bradford was born , to military parents Sergeant Viktoria K. Bradford and Lieutenant Neville Bradford in the city of on the world of . Incapable of staying beyond the duration of her maternal leave, Andra's mother returned to her job as a combat medic, leaving the newborn in her husband's care. Employed by the ONI Signals Intelligence as a communications analyst, Neville worked close to home allowing him to raise his daughter, only leaving her with a babysitter during his rare business trips. Andra entered school early in as part of an accelerated education program, notably becoming a well-liked student with interest in mathematics and colonial history. Under her father's childrearing, she developed an outgoing tomboyish personality with a competitive streak she applied to all activities, often leading to disciplinary issues regarding roughhousing classmates. Her father also broadened her horizons by introducing her to guns, teaching her to swim, signing her on to preschool choir, and visiting some of Sigma Octanus IV's famous museums and amusement parks. The happy memories of early childhood did not last for Andra however as the Human-Covenant War finally hit home for Andra on December 11, 2550. Andra only met her mother twice during brief breaks from her extended deployments; their relationship was distant but caring so it came as a shock when two officers arrived on their doorstep informing the Bradfords of Viktoria's death during the defense of . Neville refused to take Andra to the brief funeral service that followed and returned a day later, drunk and leaning the shoulder of , a family friend, and coworker. After that day, Andra and her father rarely discussed her mother. Neville threw himself into his work to avoid the onset of grief and depression but was ultimately consumed by it. At school, Andra's classmates and teachers treated her cautiously, wrongly assuming she was grieving when Andra was upset she hadn't felt enough; she chose to keep her classmates afar to not anger herself. Neville's mental and emotional health continued to deteriorate as he developed a dependency on sleep medicine and psychoactive substances, reaching a point of throwing dishes at Andra while intoxicated. At work, his failing job performance led his superiors to suspend him from work. On the outs with the , Neville sent Andra to school on , before becoming drunk and turning his pistol on himself, attempting suicide. Andra returned from school to find neighbors and emergency services around her house as her father's corpse was removed. The death of her father promptly made Andra a war orphan and a ward of the state. Promptly picked up by Child Protection Services, Andra was transferred to the Jasmine Hope Youth Treatment Center in the colonial-capital city of with only a duffel bag and backpack of personal items as the rest were seized and liquidated per wartime law. As a favor to Andra's parents, Naiya Ray went to the orphanage to see Andra off and promised to return, however, she never got the chance. With the war effort eating up resources and finances, the Jasmine Hope YTC suffered from an overflow in new orphans along with food shortages and cheap amenities. By the first month's end, Andra was just another face in a sea of parentless children, most of them offworlders who saw their homes destroyed and their survival stories only isolated Andra due to her lack of shared trauma. Reverting to a defensive hostility, Andra pushed others away in favor of drawing pictures under a tree in the orphanage courtyard. The only time adult caretakers encouraged Andra to play with other children; she sent six boys to the nurse's office after they made her the designated alien in "Kill the Split-Jaw." Over the year, Andra chased away five different foster parent prospects; her only acquaintance was a boy sleeping in the bunk bed above her, nicknamed "Legs" for kicking her head in the morning. A major change came around , when Doctor Reyna Zhou-Romero, an ONI civilian consultant, approached Andra with a proposition of joining the SPARTAN-III Program after finding the girl's medical records in a colonial database. Apprehensive and shy, Andra slowly responded to Romero after admitting she believed in Andra's strength, motivating the girl into action. Romero left the orphanage on a positive note, promising to return for Andra. On April 24, 2552, Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Korn arrived to retrieve Andra and deliver her to the [[MSV Bewitched Paragon|UNSC Eternal Flame]] where she was kept under with other recruits while SPARTAN-III Gamma Company completed training. However, after the , the SPARTAN-III training colony, in November 2552 almost ended the program and Andra's future as a Spartan. 'Delta Company' 'Character Assessment' 'Performance Sheet' ': Team Boson suspended after desertion by SPARTAN-D003 and SPARTAN-D107; SPARTAN-D111 transferred to BRUTUS division while SPARTAN-D054, SPARTAN-D032 were acquired by VIOLET-III, deployed in response to a border conflict with the Imperium of Clarity. Participated in Battle of Montak. **''Concerns of fraternization shelved while unit cohesion between SPARTAN-D054, SPARTAN-D032 remain satisfactory.'' *'August 2558 ': Team Boson, formed by SPARTAN-D054, -D032, and junior Headhunter SPARTAN-D081, carried out a priority assignment to detonate a HAVOK-type nuclear device on the Unggoy colony, Bineb II. Immediately retasked to intercept Covenant Remnant battlecruiser and retrieve VIOLET-III Smart AI. **''Confirmed confrontation with rogue SPARTAN-G294 without a kill confirmation, Smart AI retrieved. Assigned as new AI handler.'' }} 'Personal Momentos' *"Lemon & Lime": Two modified M6I machine pistols acquired by Andra during her stay in New Phoenix. She nicknamed them "Lemon and Lime" for their khaki- and olive-colored finishes. She often lends them to Merlin-D032. *'Remote Holo-Puck': After graduating from SPARTAN-III Delta Company, Andra was allowed to research her parental history through an ONI database query. Personal records of her mother, Viktoria K. Bradford, were saved to the hologram puck. *'Photographs': Laminated copies of Andra's favorite images. One of Team Boson during post-augmentation, long-range reconnaissance patrol-training. Another of Andra walking side-by-side with Joshua-G024, her mentor from VIOLET-III. The second image was given to Andra as a parting- and late birthday-gift from Amy-G094, Joshua's best friend. *'Soda Bottles': Known for her sweet-tooth, Andra often keeps a tray of soda bottles in her footlocker. A strawberry-lemon soda remained in her luggage, unopened during the Created conflict as it was a birthday gift from Derek Frendsen, her superior officer in VIOLET-III. Rumor suggests it was the last strawberry-lemon soda aboard the UNSC Infinity for almost three years. *'Master Chief Plushie': A child at heart, Andra and her friends in Team Boson acquired children's products during their stay in New Phoenix in an attempt to somewhat reclaim their lost childhoods. She still sleeps with her Master Chief plushie every night. Team Boson offhandedly referred to the plushie as "Master Fluff." 'Nicknames and Callsigns' *"Doll": Originally a demeaning nickname favored by drill instructors for Andra's poor training performance and quiet voice, it was eventually adopted by her fellow Delta Company trainees. Even after overcoming her inhibitions, Andra is still associated with the hated nickname. *"Dee-Fifty-Four": Andra's Spartan tag generated a dozen short-hand nicknames over the years and its predominately used by superior officers to command Andra's attention when she turns insubordinate. *"NDRA/D054": Andra's TEAMCOM four-letter designation. 'Relationships' 'Andra's Parents' *'Neville Bradford': Andra's father who raised Andra on his own as a stay-at-home dad while working for the Office of Naval Intelligence as a signals analyst. A proud and caring parent, he did an admirable job preparing Andra for her unforeseen future. Andra's view on him is complicated but sour due to his unraveling after his wife's death, transforming into an angry drunk before committing suicide and leaving his daughter an orphan. *'Viktoria K. Bradford': Andra's absentee mother who she rarely got to see as a constantly-deployed UNSC Army Ranger. Salvaged records of Viktoria Bradford painted her as someone admirable, worthy of emulation when Andra went to examined stored ONI records on her mother. In recent years, she's attempted at being more assertive and vocal, taking after Viktoria. Andra even took up Viktoria's maiden name out of respect for the mother she never met. 'Family Surrogates' *'Reyna Zhou-Romero': Lead recruiter and psychiatrist for SPARTAN-III Delta Company. Due to short staffing, she made several recruitment visits herself, including Andra's. Andra was quickly motivated by Doctor Zhou-Romero's encouraging words and leaned on her during her Spartan training as someone to talk to, becoming a mother surrogate that Andra never had. Even after being split apart for years, Reyna kept an eye on Andra from afar. She retooled a research Smart AI, Althea, to protect Andra where she could not. 'Team Boson' *'Merlin-D032': Team Boson's point-man and scout, Andra's best friend and potential romantic partner. Andra's relationship with Merlin-D032 is a long, complicated series of events that have come to define both their lives. Andra views Merlin as her one constant companion in life as they've been working and doing just about everything together since Spartan training. After Merlin went missing during a wayward mission, Andra developed a single-minded fixation on finding him, absolutely denying the possibility he was dead. *'Daniele-D003': Team Boson's team leader. Andra never had a strong opinion of the older boy but she did consider each other friends. As she saw him, he was a reliable team leader with a thrill-seeking streak. Due to their mutual, quiet nature, she at least felt comfortable in his presence and more than willing to execute his orders. She lost any sense of knowing him after his desertion. *'Roxanne-D107': Andra's best friend in Team Boson besides Merlin-D032 and her first from SPARTAN-III Delta Company. Roxanne was the only other girl on Team Boson and the team medic. Where Roxanne was boastful, Andra was quiet and they often traveled together as a duo. Roxanne was the first to know of, and encourage, Andra's attraction to Merlin-D032. Andra also coined Roxanne's nickname, "Rox" and "Roxxy." Her desertion came as a personal betrayal but Andra still hopes they can reunite one day. *'Zach-D111': Team Boson's specialist and armorer. Andra's relationship with Zachariah was vaguely sibling-like, forged over long nights of weapons and uniform maintenance. Zach teased Andra the most on Team Boson even though he was the youngest. Andra encouraged him to pursue a relationship with a cadet while attending the Patuxent River Cadet Academy. She was saddened but proud when he transferred into the BRUTUS Project. *'Shizuko-D081': Andra and Shizuko begrudgingly got along during training as roommates and later as teammates when Shizuko was temporarily assigned to Team Boson as a replacement team leader for Daniele-D003. Shizuko was never able to tell Andra what to do but they had mutual respect enough to call each other friends. 'Commanding Officers' *'Jefferson Korn': Team Boson's training counselor for three years. Andra looked upon him as a superior officer worthy of respect but rarely interacted with him beyond receiving orders and visiting his office whenever she was to receive disciplinary action, typically for insubordination or unsanctioned violence. *'Kyser Duceppe': Team Boson's Ferret leader, chaperone, and father figure while the team was staying on Earth. His relaxed management style made him Andra's favorite officer and almost-surrogate-father-figure. However, they never had enough time to form a bond after her teammates deserted the military and he lost the command of Team Boson. Andra often compares other commanding officers to his memory. *'Derek Frendsen': VIOLET-III's commanding officer. Andra served under him for almost a year after Team Boson's reassignment to VIOLET-III. Their relationship never extended beyond professional even when Andra attempted to treat Frendsen as she did Duceppe, like a father. Andra eventually negotiated out of his unit after losing faith in him. His aloofness, distance, and inaction on Merlin-D032's disappearance eventually shattered her trust in him. *'Ryder Kedar': The Task Force Phoenix commander and ONI-owned SPARTAN-IV. Ryder Kedar recruited Andra into his unit from VIOLET-III, using both his wit and charm to build her trust. Andra has since served in several operations under his command, many not to her liking. Even though she has a poor opinion of Ryder, she has a hard time shaking off the need to please him, likely the product of a crush or infatuation. 'VIOLET-III' *'Joshua-G024': Andra's personal mentor from VIOLET-III. While cynical and overtly negative, even violent towards her teammates, Joshua-G024 and Andra shared a sibling relationship bonded over similar childhood experiences and doubts. Joshua cared about Andra potentially to an obsessive degree, even engineering reasons to keep her team from frontline deployments to protect her supposed-innocence. His death weighed heavily on Andra. Much of his teachings continue to shape Andra's view on galactic affairs. *'Amy-G094': Joshua-G024's best friend and teammate. Andra often looked up to Amy as an older sister even though Amy maintained her distance in comparison to Joshua who practically dotted over Andra. After Joshua's death, their friendship soured as they dealt with the trauma in different ways. Since then, Amy and Andra's relationship has been combative and on poor terms. 'The Frontier' *'Simon-G294': The infamous butcher of his fellow SPARTAN-IIIs, Simon-G294 was a motivating target for many Spartans to take down, including Andra. After several close encounters where they narrowly killed one another, Andra's view on Simon shifted slowly while assigned to his undercover detail by Ryder Kedar. Instead of being a target to kill, Simon became someone to try and understand as a fixture of her extreme curiosity. *'Cassandra-G006': A SPARTAN-III deserter and frontier doctor, Cassandra-G006 came into contact with Andra after David Kahn, her father, recruited both to fight the Iskandar Syndicate. Though Andra hides her small respect for Cassandra, she struggled to admit it given their differing worldviews. Andra's brief presence played a role in driving a wedge between Cassandra and her friends aboard the Chancer V. After tempers cooled with distance, Andra accepted Cassandra as a positive but wary influence, even a friend. *'Argo 'Varvin': A former Sangheili Special Operations officer and spy for the Office of Naval Intelligence, Argo and Andra share a history dating back to an encounter in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. After failing to stop a failed mission involving Andra, Argo felt indebted to the Spartan and followed her across the frontier to keep her out of trouble. Andra still doesn't know what to make of the Sangheili chaperone. 'Smart AI' *'Althea': The gifted Smart AI at first assigned to VIOLET-III before being directly left in the care of Andra-D054 and Merlin-D032. After Merlin's poor handling of the Smart AI during the border war with the Imperium of Clarity, she was made Andra's responsibility. Extended exposure to Andra's neurology encouraged Althea to model herself after Andra, scaring the girl. After her personal exposure to Althea, Andra has developed a relative fear of Smart AI over the course of the Created conflict. 'See Also' 'Notable Links' *Viktoria K. Bradford *Merlin-D032 *Team Boson *Joshua-G024 *Delta Company *Althea 'Literary Appearances' *''Halo: Arizona Backroads'' *''Psychological Assessment: Andra-D054'' *''RP: Imperium'' *''Counting Tiles'' *''Halo: Lonely Frontier'' *''Halo: Heaven and Earth'' *''Halo: Heaven and Earth/Alternate Interrupt'' *''Happy Safari'' 'References' Category:Distant Tide Category:Females Category:Delta Company Category:SPARTAN-IIIs Category:Humans